Winners of the 2019 Susan A. Brown Award

Submitted on
Thursday, June 13, 2019

The envelope, please. And the winners are Glen Menzies and Anna Oh, two staff members at the Faculty of Information, who regularly go far above and beyond the call of duty to keep things running smoothly for both colleagues and students.

A true Renaissance man, Facilities Coordinator Glen Menzies does everything from tricky tech tasks to heavy lifting, both literally and metaphorically. If Glen is in charge, you can have complete confidence the job will not just get done but that it will be completed in the best way possible. On top of his regular duties, always carried out with patience and aplomb, Glen worked last summer with Prof Olivier St-Cyr to set up the new UXD Studio, which proved a huge teaching success this past academic year.

Co-winner and library technician Anna Oh has a much deserved reputation as a technological problem solver. When it comes to exploring new academic technologies, she displays no hesitance and generously shares her knowledge with students, faculty members and staff. Her skills, experience, and friendly, calm manner proved invaluable as the university recently transitioned from Blackboard to Quercus. Under the banner of her Course Syllabi Service, Anna offered one-on-one Quercus support to instructors, reducing stress levels all around.

“We are so lucky to have staffers like Anna and Glen at the Faculty,” said Dean Wendy Duff. “They are truly deserving of this award, which was set up in Susan’s honour, to recognize the enormous contributions our staff members make to our community.”

The Susan A. Brown Award was established in 2013 upon Susan’s retirement as the Faculty’s Assistant Dean, Administration, the last of many key roles she played during her 31 years at the Faculty of Information.